1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developer cleaning method and an apparatus for cleaning the surface of an electrostatic image holder of an electrostatic recording apparatus such as a dry type electrophotographic copying apparatus or the like wherein a visible image is formed by the dry type development and said image is transferred and a copy is obtained.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical cleaning apparatus for the electrostatic image holder used in a dry type electrophotographic copying apparatus includes a type wherein the cleaning is carried out by rubbing the surface of the electrostatic image holder using a member such as a blade, a fur brush or a web, a type wherein an air stream is used for the cleaning and a type wherein a magnetic force or a magnetic brush etc. is used for the cleaning.
A cleaning apparatus of the type wherein the surface of the electrostatic image holder is rubbed has tended to hurt the surface of said image holder and thereby has been unsuitable especially for an image holder with a weak surface strength such as an organic photoconductive receptor. A cleaning apparatus of the type wherein an air stream is used has had problems in that the apparatus itself tends to be large and noise is produced and the recovered efficiency of toner powder is lowered. Further, in the cleaning apparatus wherein a magnetic brush is used, said apparatus itself has been expensive and the cleaning ability has been inferior.